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You are here: Home / Morning in America

Morning in America

by $8 blue check mistermix|  January 25, 20129:04 am| 176 Comments

This post is in: Good News For Conservatives

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Do you remember when one of the big MSM critiques of Democrats was the lack of optimism they showed, how they were always scolding and negative about our future, and how Americans, who are fundamentally optimistic, couldn’t identify with the party and its candidates because of it? I do, but apparently this guy doesn’t, because I’ll be damned if he cracked more than a reluctant smile last night.

It’s not just Cantor and Boehner at the SOTU, it’s also Gingrich, Romney, Santorum and Paul in the debates. Those twice-weekly pissing matches are glum, overly serious affairs contrasting the grim meathook future of another four years of Barack Obama with an even darker apocalypse of program cuts and never-ending austerity under the Republicans.

I’m not saying that politicians need to tell us happy lies, but I think it is fair to expect them to have a bit of optimism and some proposals that try to make the lives of Americans better. We haven’t seen either from the Party of Reagan for at least a solid decade. Hating the gays,the browns, and the poors, and cutting programs to keep taxes down are all unpleasant work, and it shows.

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Reader Interactions

176Comments

  1. 1.

    Bob

    January 25, 2012 at 9:08 am

    Those twice-weekly pissing matches are glum, overly serious affairs….

    So soon we forget Herman Cain.

  2. 2.

    PIGL

    January 25, 2012 at 9:12 am

    Really, one should not judge character from a photo, but I see a shifty-eyed lying weaselly prickears, in the very creepy flesh. He looks like he just finished strangling his grandmother but was disappointed in the experience.

  3. 3.

    deep

    January 25, 2012 at 9:14 am

    So did you hear those people chanting “Kenya! Kenya! Kenya!” right before a Gingrich speech yesterday?

  4. 4.

    Mike Goetz

    January 25, 2012 at 9:19 am

    Romney was pissing all over Obama’s optimism in his post-SOTU interviews last night.

    All the Republicans are constantly comparing us to Greece. Greece!

    Daniels was a grey-faced downer.

    These guys aren’t going to inspire anybody to come out and vote.

  5. 5.

    greennotGreen

    January 25, 2012 at 9:21 am

    Resentment isn’t a happy emotion, and the modern Republican party is all about resentment.

  6. 6.

    General Stuck

    January 25, 2012 at 9:23 am

    That’s the look that says we are just gonna have to look harder for that whitey tape

  7. 7.

    JPL

    January 25, 2012 at 9:24 am

    @Mike Goetz: Well if the wealthy keep avoiding taxes, we will be like Greece.

  8. 8.

    Zach

    January 25, 2012 at 9:24 am

    Cantor smiled like crazy (really, he looks crazy when he smiles) when he walked into the room behind Obama. It was sort of weird that he was on the escort committee (House and Senate leadership pick a bipartisan committee to walk in w/ the Prez). As Majority Leader isn’t he the one picking the committee?

    Don’t forget that Cantor is the GOP’s charismatic Young Guns; hand-picked for his ability to wow voters with enthusiasm. Just like Newt Gingrich is the brains of the Republican party, GW Bush was the CEO President, Rumsfeld was the executive wizard who was going to reform the Pentagon with his no-nonsense business know-how, Alan Greenspan was a financial wizard shepherding an era of infinite growth and Rick Perry was the most brilliant campaigner in Texas history. They know how to pick ’em.

  9. 9.

    bcinaz

    January 25, 2012 at 9:25 am

    Here’s a guy furiously thinking that he and his party have less than a year to somehow torpedo the recovery – but how to do it without leaving fingerprints?

  10. 10.

    Bob2

    January 25, 2012 at 9:28 am

    I believe Cantor was handpicked for his ability to raise funds, not wow voters, but yeah basically.

    Also mistermix, you forgot to mention destroying unions to create an environment conducive to cheap labor.

  11. 11.

    flukebucket

    January 25, 2012 at 9:29 am

    My wife who gives not one damn about politics and does not even know the players watched the State of the Union address with me last night. I could not help but chuckle when she said that the guy on the right sitting behind Obama looked like he was dying for a drink of liquor. My daughter who also does not keep up with politics very much also asked about Cantor. She described him as the guy with dark hair and glasses who looked like somebody next to him had farted. I just sent her a link to this post so she will always know who Eric Cantor is. She also asked me who in the hell it was that gave the rebuttal. I told her it was the Republican Ace In The Hole.

  12. 12.

    beltane

    January 25, 2012 at 9:30 am

    The GOP has gone from being the party of Morning in America to being the party of paranoid off-the-grid types with their hoards of gold coins and open-pollinated seeds.

  13. 13.

    FFrank

    January 25, 2012 at 9:31 am

    @bcinaz

    Here’s a guy furiously thinking that he and his party have less than a year to somehow torpedo the recovery – but how to do it without leaving fingerprints?

    This is why we have to blog-o-sphere to help yell loud enough for one time out of fifty for the media to pay attention to make change. Another reason why I like the occupy folks because they reduced it to one out of forty-nine. the additional .0004 percent makes a difference. And to stop the drastic stuff from happening.

  14. 14.

    Joseph Nobles

    January 25, 2012 at 9:32 am

    OT: The weirdest glitch. When I first come to the first page, the top post is from yesterday. But clicking on the reload link in the header loads all the posts since then. FUWP.

    Anyway, someone on DU was allowing how Eric Cantor reminded them of Grima Wormtongue, but I wasn’t having it. Cantor’s more like one of those frigging Elves that trashed Middle Earth and then just trot off into the West while Sauron’s power grows.

    Actually, I’d switch worlds and peg Cantor for a Cardassian.

  15. 15.

    Rosalita

    January 25, 2012 at 9:37 am

    @flukebucket:

    who looked like somebody next to him had farted

    Can’t beat that comment!! LOL

  16. 16.

    kay

    January 25, 2012 at 9:37 am

    @PIGL:

    Really, one should not judge character from a photo, but I see a shifty-eyed lying weaselly prickears, in the very creepy flesh. He looks like he just finished strangling his grandmother but was disappointed in the experience.

    Do you? I see someone completely aware he’s on camera, trying (and failing) to project that he’s serious and stern and pissed off.

    He always looks like a clown to me. I don’t think he’s scary at all. He’s vain, silly and weirdly childish for a grown man.

    I know nine year old boys who pull “mad” off more convincingly. I laughed when I saw it last night. It’s so over the top, “I am someone to be reckoned with” Ooooh. Scary!

  17. 17.

    pseudonymous in nc

    January 25, 2012 at 9:39 am

    @bcinaz:

    Here’s a guy furiously thinking that he and his party have less than a year to somehow torpedo the recovery – but how to do it without leaving fingerprints?

    Exactamundo. He’s working out every bullshit excuse for every proposal, on the basis that the only way they can run is to trash the place and then point out it’s looking a bit messy.

  18. 18.

    Hawes

    January 25, 2012 at 9:41 am

    Did you post that picture of Cantor just so Cole would feel better about posting his own pic last night?

    See, Cole? Skinny people are nothing great to look at either.

  19. 19.

    Chris

    January 25, 2012 at 9:42 am

    @Joseph Nobles:

    Reloading doesn’t do it for me. I have to click on the top post (“SOTU Reaction”) and “Next Post” my way forward from there. It’s happened before, but never with this many posts…

  20. 20.

    MattM

    January 25, 2012 at 9:42 am

    grim meathook future

    Somebody’s a Warren Ellis fan.

  21. 21.

    PIGL

    January 25, 2012 at 9:43 am

    @kay: I guess I went over the top. You must be a mom, and your dissection is truly more painful than mine, especially because it is true; he is lamely acting all manner of bad-ass. But will you grant me the shifty-eyed lying weasel?

  22. 22.

    MattM

    January 25, 2012 at 9:44 am

    Er, Joshua Ellis.

  23. 23.

    scav

    January 25, 2012 at 9:45 am

    I’ve got it, I’ve got it, I’ve got it, I’ve got it, OK it’s an OT it and I’m a little overcaffeinated. Newtie’s actually Tinkerbelle as he dies unless everybody in the debate claps!

  24. 24.

    rikryah

    January 25, 2012 at 9:47 am

    but but negativity is ok when the GOP does it.

    they have NOTHING ELSE TO OFFER.

  25. 25.

    FlipYrWhig

    January 25, 2012 at 9:49 am

    “Blue Steel.”

  26. 26.

    chopper

    January 25, 2012 at 9:50 am

    don’t forget ol’ walnuts, who had a smirk and never stood up once.

  27. 27.

    The Moar You Know

    January 25, 2012 at 9:57 am

    America’s a shining city on a hill, until a black man becomes president. Then it’s a grim race-based gulag, like the South L.A. that exists only in the fervid minds of the most pasty white, Confederate flag waving NASCAR scooter drivers – full of ACORN pimps, New Black Panther hustlas, drive-by tax increases and capital gains overdoses. Every one of them gunning fo’ whitey. What’s a playa like Cantor to do?

    Ask Democrats how well being pissy Eeyores worked for them back in the eighties. Remember “malaise”? Apparently the Republicans don’t. Not being a red, white, and blue star-spangled cheerleader for this country will earn you a long time-out in the cellar of our national politics.

  28. 28.

    burnspbesq

    January 25, 2012 at 9:57 am

    the grim meathook future of another four years of Barack Obama

    Say what, now?

    some proposals that try to make the lives of Americans better.

    I kinda liked the idea of a joint task force between DOJ and state attorneys general to investigate potential crimes associated with the financial meltdown. This commentariat has been begging for something like this for a couple of years, and now you’ve got it.

  29. 29.

    Lojasmo

    January 25, 2012 at 10:03 am

    @Mike Goetz:

    These guys aren’t going to inspire anybody to come out and vote

    They will inspire me, though not in the way they would like.

  30. 30.

    Morbo

    January 25, 2012 at 10:05 am

    Apparently last night was the first time Chad Ochocinco watched the SOTU.

  31. 31.

    dmsilev

    January 25, 2012 at 10:06 am

    They’ve gone from Morning in America to Mourning in America.

  32. 32.

    geg6

    January 25, 2012 at 10:07 am

    I’m not saying that politicians need to tell us happy lies, but I think it is fair to expect them to have a bit of optimism and some proposals that try to make the lives of Americans better. We haven’t seen either from the Party of Reagan for at least a solid decade. Hating the gays,the browns, and the poors, and cutting programs to keep taxes down are all unpleasant work, and it shows.

    This, more than anything. Even Tricky Dick worked harder to keep his inner orc from popping out in front of the public. Sadly, he just wasn’t all that talented at hiding it, but I give him credit for trying. And, FSM knows, Reagan was a master at the whole American optimism thing, if you can get past the shit he advocated and implemented and just admire his ability to sell it.

    But today’s GOPers are just exhaustingly negative, snippy, and sour. Americans really don’t like that and, I think, are sick to death of their doom, gloom, apocalyptic rhetoric, and unrelenting hostility to anyone or anything that they, themselves, have not allowed to enter into their canon.

    Based on the polling numbers, most of America feels a bit the same about the GOP congressional leadership as they do about Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church.

  33. 33.

    rikryah

    January 25, 2012 at 10:08 am

    Last night’s State of the Union speech received high marks from viewers across the country, a CBS poll shows. According to the poll, 91 percent of those who viewed the speech approved of the proposals put forth by President Obama, and 82 percent of viewers approved of Obama’s economic plans.

  34. 34.

    Rafer Janders

    January 25, 2012 at 10:08 am

    Do you remember when one of the big MSM critiques of Democrats was the lack of optimism they showed, how they were always scolding and negative about our future, and how Americans, who are fundamentally optimistic, couldn’t identify with the party and its candidates because of it?

    Also, too, we were angry. Angry angry ANGRY! Remember that Howard Dean guy, and how white-hot searing anger just radiated off him, and how The American People (TM) weren’t going to vote for anyone so angry?

    Of course, that was 2003/2004, and this is now, and while Democratic anger turned off voters, Republican righteous outrage is just a sign of their passion and commitment and deep feeling for this great country.

    And, of course, all we had to be angry about was the torture of helpless prisoners, the illegal invasion of Iraq for no good reason, and the assault on our civil liberties, which is no reason to lose your cool. But Republicans are right to be incensed about a Kenyan soshulist anti-colonialist usurper of a president who killed Osama ben Laden and rescued the American auto industry and turned the economy around and provided a basic level of universal healthcare. Hulk angry at that!

  35. 35.

    Mudge

    January 25, 2012 at 10:09 am

    So that Kenyan pickpocket stole their mojo..err ..optimism.

  36. 36.

    Rafer Janders

    January 25, 2012 at 10:10 am

    @bcinaz:

    They’re going to convince the economy to self-deport.

  37. 37.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    January 25, 2012 at 10:11 am

    @Mike Goetz: Getting people to come out and vote isn’t the point. In fact, it is the exact opposite of their strategy. They want to drive the narrative that America and American politics are broken not to set themselves up to fix it but to dispirit all the young people that supported Obama in ’08. The Matlock vote is in the bank but not sufficient to take their country back (to the gilded age.) The only way the GOP wins is by convincing the rest of America their time is better spent keeping up with the Kardashians than voting.

  38. 38.

    Xenos

    January 25, 2012 at 10:11 am

    @JPL:

    Well if the wealthy keep avoiding taxes, we will be like Greece.

    Or the French. The nobility did not pay any taxes, and they sat there and watched the government go bankrupt. It was not so much of a revolution as the abdication of the entire upper class, with the revolutionaries fighting between themselves for power and then going after the ancien regime when it threatened to reassert itself.

  39. 39.

    Epicurus

    January 25, 2012 at 10:12 am

    @Hawes: My thoughts, exactly. Compared to Cantor, our beloved blog host is an Adonis!

  40. 40.

    EconWatcher

    January 25, 2012 at 10:12 am

    For those of you who revel in schadenfreude, you really should pay a visit to The Corner today (a/k/a K-Lo’s house of crazy). Comment after comment in which they beg Mitch Daniels to save them from their “second-rate” candidates. They aren’t even trying to put lipstick on the pig.

  41. 41.

    magurakurin

    January 25, 2012 at 10:13 am

    To be fair to guys like Cantor, they have a reason to mourn because their America is dying. The racist, homophobic and greed-based shit stain version of America that has dogged the Republic since 1789. The last dying gasp of the Confederacy is upon them and they know it.

    That smell…it’s fear.

    Newt or Romney it makes no mind. They are going down in November along with a lot more of these jokers. By the time autumn rolls around they’ll be lucky if they even still have the 27%ers.

  42. 42.

    dmsilev

    January 25, 2012 at 10:15 am

    @EconWatcher: I’ll take your word for it. But assuming that the Daniels we saw last night is typical of the man, he has managed the rare feat of having even less charisma than the Romneytronic 3000.

  43. 43.

    EconWatcher

    January 25, 2012 at 10:18 am

    @dmsilev:

    That’s what makes it all the funnier: That’s their dream candidate?

  44. 44.

    kay

    January 25, 2012 at 10:18 am

    @PIGL:

    But will you grant me the shifty-eyed lying weasel?

    I will, but he’s a vain and childish shifty-eyed lying weasel, and that takes all of the threat out of it for me.
    I can’t believe he’s in the US House. He’s 9 years old.

  45. 45.

    dmsilev

    January 25, 2012 at 10:18 am

    Schadenfreude In the Morning. Here’s Ericksonsonson on the state of the GOP primary:

    The fight has gotten so bitter and acrimonious with only three states chosen because neither side thinks the other side can win. Gingrich supporters understand that the secularists in the media — not the Democrats, but the media to the extent it can be separated from the Obama Machine — will spend six months creeping out independent suburban voters about Mormons, holy underwear, Kolob, postmortem baptism, and views on black people and then, as the coup de grace, Barack Obama will fire up millions of dollars of ads on Bain Capital raiding pension funds forcing the government to cover the debt so Mitt Romney could make millions whether he won or lost a deal.
    __
    Romney supporters understand Newt Gingrich will open his mouth.
    […]
    So maybe we ought to all find someone who we all kind of like instead of heading to Tampa in August all licking wounds and pretending to rally to the man the voters chose between the evils of two real lessers.

  46. 46.

    FlipYrWhig

    January 25, 2012 at 10:20 am

    @burnspbesq: I’ve already seen comments elsewhere about how it’s probably an attempt to co-opt and sideline Schneiderman, because Obama can’t be trusted on the banks. Funny how that wasn’t the logic on Elizabeth Warren. She was neutralized by being pushed out, Schneiderman is neutralized by being brought on board, and neither of them is bright enough to see it. Or something. That’s just how nefarious Obama is, that he can ruin and corrupt both by proximity and by distance. It’s tiring keeping track of all the Biggest Betrayals EVAR!~1

  47. 47.

    geg6

    January 25, 2012 at 10:20 am

    @rikryah:

    According to the poll, 91 percent of those who viewed the speech approved of the proposals put forth by President Obama, and 82 percent of viewers approved of Obama’s economic plans.

    Heh. All the pundits out there today, opining how divisive and how this was just a liberal wish list, once again show that they are paid vast and obscene gobs of money for absolutely nothing. Not a bit of value in anything they pundit about.

  48. 48.

    dmsilev

    January 25, 2012 at 10:22 am

    @dmsilev: And I realize that nutpicking the RedState comments is a tad silly, but I thought this was hilarious:

    His [Harding’s] “cronyism” can be ignored as piking by today’s standards (Solyndra out-does Teapot Dome by several thousand times).

    Solyndra! Worse than Teapot Dome! Worse than Watergate! Worse than the assassination of Lincoln *and* the crucifixion of Christ!

  49. 49.

    jayboat

    January 25, 2012 at 10:22 am

    Cantor is just a twerp who wants so bad to be thought of as an alpha dog. That silly scowl on his face made me lol it was so contrived.

    @Mike Goetz:
    The newtron’s appearance here in Naples yesterday drew SIX THOUSAND morans.

  50. 50.

    JCT

    January 25, 2012 at 10:23 am

    @dmsilev

    Not to mention he was sitting down. A dour, boring , malaise-dripping DWARF who was the architect of our debt next to our charismatic, can-do President? Gotta love those visuals. Dream-on K-Lo.

  51. 51.

    Yevgraf

    January 25, 2012 at 10:25 am

    To me, that expression resembles what occurs in the aftermath of a really soggy shart, as he wonders if the stain has leaked through to his pants and maybe even his suit coat tail.

  52. 52.

    EconWatcher

    January 25, 2012 at 10:25 am

    @burnspbesq:

    I was baffled by the proposal to set up a task force now to investigate possible financial crimes associated with the meltdown. It takes a while to conduct complex investigations. The relevant statute of limitations will have run before they could get down.

  53. 53.

    Bulworth

    January 25, 2012 at 10:26 am

    “Believe In America!”

    So says Mittens. But I guess if we re-elect Obama Mittens will think we don’t believe in America?

  54. 54.

    burnspbesq

    January 25, 2012 at 10:26 am

    @FlipYrWhig:

    The folks who think like that don’t want investigations. They want the Red Queen’s “justice.” Summary beheadings in prime time on MSNBC (or is it espn2?).

  55. 55.

    FlipYrWhig

    January 25, 2012 at 10:26 am

    @dmsilev: It’s just induction, dude. When candidates 1 through N have been either detestable, abrasive, or soporific, or all at once, I think we have a pretty solid idea about what candidate N+1 is going to be like.

  56. 56.

    Southern Beale

    January 25, 2012 at 10:26 am

    Yes OH MY GOD yes. And I remember in 2004 how Democrats were TOO ANGRY, remember that? Tweety and Bobo and everyone else talking about how Americans don’t vote for angry candidates and our anger was going to get the better of us, and Harold Ford Jr. in 2006 lectured us at a Music Row Democrats forum about being “too angry” and now you’ve practically got steam coming out of the ears of the Republican nominees (except Mitt, of course, he’d need a software upgrade or something for that), but now it’s IOKIYAR all the time, of course it is, IOKIYAR rules our discourse. Democrats can never win so quit trying and just be without worrying about the rest of it.

  57. 57.

    Yutsano

    January 25, 2012 at 10:27 am

    @Joseph Nobles:

    Actually, I’d switch worlds and peg Cantor for a Cardassian.

    I wouldn’t. Cardassians are clever political machinators. If Cantor were truly Cardassian he’d be Speaker by now because the AOS would be in a show trial for trumped up crimes.

  58. 58.

    Brian R.

    January 25, 2012 at 10:27 am

    @dmsilev:

    Solyndra out-does Teapot Dome by several thousand times

    Jesus, that is some impressive stupidity.

  59. 59.

    Satanicpanic

    January 25, 2012 at 10:27 am

    That’s the look of a boy who didn’t get what he wanted for Christmas

  60. 60.

    Senyrodave

    January 25, 2012 at 10:28 am

    @EconWatcher: I read Sully, and he’s revised his man crush on Daniels. I have one comment for Sully:

    The Iraq war was not included in the budget under Bush, and Mitch Daniels was his budget director. Let’s not include a $100 billion cost in our budget that we know we will incur. In a stock company, this would get you a prison cell for fraud.

    But Mitch Daniels is a very serious fellow that understands the dangers of the deficit – the same deficit that he helped engineer.

  61. 61.

    Brian R.

    January 25, 2012 at 10:29 am

    @Satanicpanic:

    That’s the look of a boy who didn’t get what he wanted for Christmas

    Seeing how he’s Jewish, probably not.

  62. 62.

    Violet

    January 25, 2012 at 10:31 am

    @magurakurin:

    To be fair to guys like Cantor, they have a reason to mourn because their America is dying. The racist, homophobic and greed-based shit stain version of America that has dogged the Republic since 1789. The last dying gasp of the Confederacy is upon them and they know it.

    Cantor is Jewish. In the not too distant past he’d be one of the ones the rest of the Confederates were fighting against. It’s only the crazed Evangelical support for Israel that even allows him to be accepted into the party.

  63. 63.

    Senyrodave

    January 25, 2012 at 10:32 am

    @dmsilev: I have to admit the line about Gingrih opening his mouth is pretty good.

  64. 64.

    handsmile

    January 25, 2012 at 10:32 am

    It’s hard to wail “I want my country back!” with a smile on one’s face.

    The White Party just gets meaner and uglier as it’s pushed further into the demographic corner.

    Perhaps Jimmy Carter, good man that he is, might wish to counsel the GOP on the use of “malaise” as a winning electoral theme.

  65. 65.

    burnspbesq

    January 25, 2012 at 10:33 am

    @EconWatcher:

    Would have to check that on a case-by-case basis to be sure. 18 USC 3282, which sets the general five-year statute, begins with “except as otherwise provided.” And (IIRC) the statute for conspiracy doesn’t start to run until the last act in furtherance of the conspiracy. If that “last act” is ongoing concealment, …

  66. 66.

    Satanicpanic

    January 25, 2012 at 10:36 am

    @Brian R.: oh yeah, that’s right. In my defense, I didn’t mean it literally. He’s a big boy now, I’m sure he shops for his own action figures.

  67. 67.

    Brian R.

    January 25, 2012 at 10:42 am

    @Satanicpanic:

    Oh, I didn’t think you meant it that way.

    But speaking of Christmas presents, he reminds me of that old Roger Ailes line about Richard Nixon: “He looks like the kind of guy who got a briefcase for Christmas as a kid — and loved it.”

  68. 68.

    Emma

    January 25, 2012 at 10:43 am

    @EconWatcher: I’ll bet you $10,000 (Monopoly money only, of course) that the planning stages on this have been underway for a while.

  69. 69.

    lamh35

    January 25, 2012 at 10:48 am

    Geez! Stuff like this is why the GOP for all their bs about Obama “appeasing” and “apologizing” for America just gets no traction outside of the 27%.

    Obama’s Preternatural Luck

    The same Navy SEAL team that killed Usama bin-Laden made a daring rescue yesterday in Somalia. They rescued an American woman and a Danish man, and left nine Somali pirate kidnappers dead. The hostages were not injured.

    (from MSNBC)”The first indication of the rescue operation came Tuesday night in Washington from President Barack Obama himself.
    As the president entered the House chambers to give his State of the Union Speech, he pointed to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta standing in the crowd and said, “Leon. Good job tonight. Good job tonight.”
    The president made no mention of the hostage rescue, but finished his speech with a reference to the killing of Osama bin Laden last May in a similar operation to the one conducted by Navy SEALs Tuesday night.”

    It’s eerily similar to the speech he made at the White House Correspondents Dinner when he knew that he had ordered the mission to get bin-Laden. The president lives a charmed life. His State of the Union address was bookended by Mitt Romney’s embarrassing tax returns which fit perfectly with his theme of economic fairness, and another successful SEAL mission which reinforced his reminder that he, not Bush, got justice for the 9/11 attacks…

  70. 70.

    geg6

    January 25, 2012 at 10:48 am

    @Emma:

    I agree. I seem to remember some stories about DoJ investigating quite a few of those cases and it could be that they will use the fruits of those investigations.

  71. 71.

    Satanicpanic

    January 25, 2012 at 10:50 am

    @Brian R.: It doesn’t help that he looks like a kid pretending to be an adult. Maybe my favorite moment in politics ever was when he showed up at that healthcare summit with Obama, Pelosi, Boehner, etc. and sat down behind a big stack of copies of the ACA and Obama called him out on it. Said he was bringing them as a prop and that this was a serious meeting. Cantor had the most pathetic look on his face and shut right up.

  72. 72.

    Hawes

    January 25, 2012 at 10:52 am

    I don’t think this is an IOKIYAR, where they are allowed to be angry and Democrats aren’t. I honestly think that the negativity and anger dripping off these guys will turn off large segments of the population.

    I think – barring another meltdown – Obama wins, Dems take back the House and the Senate remains close to status quo.

  73. 73.

    geg6

    January 25, 2012 at 10:53 am

    @geg6:

    More evidence that pundits aren’t worth a bucket of warm spit:

    Based on our dial session with 28 voters in Columbus, Ohio, President Obama’s State of the Union speech was an exceptionally strong performance, leaving viewers with a clear impression of him as a strong leader who cares about the middle class and offers good ideas and solutions for America’s future. Voters’ positive reception of the speech’s core themes suggests that they will serve as a solid foundation for the President in the months ahead, in framing both his policy agenda and the case for his reelection.

    Dial testing and follow-up focus groups with 50 swing voters in Denver, Colorado show that President Obama’s populist defense of the middle class and their priorities in his State of the Union scored with voters. The President generated strong responses on energy, education and foreign policy, but most important, he made impressive gains on a range of economic measures. These swing voters, even the Republicans, responded enthusiastically to his call for a “Buffet Rule” that would require the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share. As one participant put it, “I agree with his tax reform – the 1 percent should shoulder more of the burden than the other 99 percent. He [Obama] talked about being all for one, one for all – that really resonated for me.” These dial focus groups make it very clear that defending further tax cuts for those at the top of the economic spectrum puts Republicans in Congress and on the Presidential campaign trail well outside of the American mainstream.

    h/t to Mr. Benen on his last day at WaMo: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2012_01/initial_polling_on_sotu_appear034983.php

  74. 74.

    GregB

    January 25, 2012 at 10:54 am

    That picture should be in the dictionary under the word putz.

  75. 75.

    Kane

    January 25, 2012 at 10:56 am

    Visit Newseum and look at front-page headlines from today’s newspapers from across the country. Many of headlines point to the theme of fairness with something like “Obama says all must pay fair share of taxes”. Also included on the front page of many of the papers is the Romney tax story of how he enhanced his fortune with the current tax code.

    The contrast couldn’t be clearer.

  76. 76.

    rikryah

    January 25, 2012 at 10:57 am

    ThinkProgress has a piece out about how Bain profited from Florida foreclosures.

    http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/25/409804/romneys-profited-foreclosure-florida/

  77. 77.

    burnspbesq

    January 25, 2012 at 10:59 am

    Even after the KPMG fiasco, Federal prosecutors have some interesting tools at their disposal. Imagine the following conversation:

    AUSA: “Ms. Person-of-Interest, we’d like to sign a tolling agreement. If you sign, we will continue our investigation and it’s possible that you will be exonerated. If you refuse to sign, we will indict you tomorrow on everything we can imagine you might be guilty of. If we indict, your legal bills go from $20K/month to $50K/month, if not higher, and corporate reimbursement for those expenses stops. Whaddaya say?”

    Typically, at this point, Ms. Person-of-Interest’s response is “where do I sign?”

  78. 78.

    handsmile

    January 25, 2012 at 11:00 am

    Refreshing the BJ front page, I was struck by the sequence of images of glowering beefcake now gracing it: Cantor, Thompson, and Cole.

    Perhaps it’s “Opposite Day,” and this is a sneak peek of the upcoming Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Good news for conservatives, indeed.

  79. 79.

    Yutsano

    January 25, 2012 at 11:01 am

    @burnspbesq: Yesbut…still worse than Bush, veal pens, cudlips, etc.

  80. 80.

    kay

    January 25, 2012 at 11:02 am

    @geg6:

    I’m glad. I can’t tell anymore. I’m “will they like it? who knows!”

    I generally don’t like SOTU’s because the laundry list is too much information for me, too fast. The laundry list is both too specific as to items and too broad, as to each item, but I did like the “basic blueprint, broad themes” part, at the beginning and end.

  81. 81.

    DCLaw1

    January 25, 2012 at 11:04 am

    @geg6: The worthlessness of most pundits, when it isn’t rooted in shallow fixation on horse-race inside baseball, stems from their overthinking political messaging as if it is in the same dimension as policymaking.

    Politics and campaigning is not about how faithfully a speech or proposal adheres to Hayekian blah blah blah or any other intellectual standard. Politics and campaigning – and just about every SOTU has been one or both – is about emotion, aspiration, and identification.

    In a sense, I suppose, the pundits that don’t get it are in fact viewing it through that lens. But their lens of emotion, aspiration, and identification is the one of their tiny social circle of deficit scolds and bipartisanship fetishists. Consequently, the message and vast swaths of people to whom it is designed to appeal goes right over their sour-faced heads.

  82. 82.

    General Stuck

    January 25, 2012 at 11:05 am

    “My Message is Simple”: Obama’s SOTU Written at 8th Grade Level for Third Straight Year

    Newsflash. Obama reaches out to republicans

  83. 83.

    geg6

    January 25, 2012 at 11:09 am

    @kay:

    It really was a very Clintonesque SOTU, rather the usual Obama soaring rhetoric kind of speech. But people adored Bubba’s SOTUs. And I tend to agree with Benen on the idea (as shown by numerous studies by political scientists) that presidents try very hard to implement the things they promise in big speeches and during campaigns. They can’t get everything, but, for the most part, they try (whether we actually see them doing it or understand that they are doing it or not). If he keeps hammering on this stuff, he’ll win and he’ll win handily.

  84. 84.

    geg6

    January 25, 2012 at 11:12 am

    @DCLaw1:

    But their lens of emotion, aspiration, and identification is the one of their tiny social circle of deficit scolds and bipartisanship fetishists. Consequently, the message and vast swaths of people to whom it is designed to appeal goes right over their sour-faced heads.

    The Village. The fucking Village is the most toxic social construct in America.

  85. 85.

    kay

    January 25, 2012 at 11:14 am

    @geg6:

    If he keeps hammering on this stuff, he’ll win and he’ll win handily

    He’s been using “fair” for a year and a half. “Fair” is a good word. Conservatives hate it, because they see it as complicated and ideological, but it’s not. It’s effective because it’s simple. We used it here for both minimum wage increase and collective bargaining. Fair, fair, fair, every thirty seconds :)

  86. 86.

    Joseph Nobles

    January 25, 2012 at 11:14 am

    @Yutsano: When you’re right, you’re right.

    How about Cantor as Joffrey Baratheon?

  87. 87.

    Paul in KY

    January 25, 2012 at 11:16 am

    @Joseph Nobles: Cantor is more a ‘Mouth of Sauron’ type.

    Romney is one of those asshole Noldor who trash Middle Earth, then get ‘killed’ in some stupid manner & go back to Aman, do a term in Mandos & then party forever.

  88. 88.

    Tone In DC

    January 25, 2012 at 11:18 am

    @kay:

    The thought bubble over his head would say that? LULz. Somewhere, Stan Lee just got an idea for another villain for the third string X-Men.

  89. 89.

    geg6

    January 25, 2012 at 11:19 am

    @kay:

    Gotta say, I’m just gobsmacked that a focus group of swing voters in Columbus just loved, loved, loved the speech. I always think of Columbus as a smaller Cincinnati.

  90. 90.

    lacp

    January 25, 2012 at 11:22 am

    @Violet: Not sure that Judah Benjamin would agree….

  91. 91.

    kay

    January 25, 2012 at 11:25 am

    @Tone In DC:

    third string X-Men

    Right? This is where the adult would tease him to make him crack a smile and the 9 year old would have to drop the act, because the jig is up.

    Imagine negotiating with him. Bash my head against the fucking wall. ALL ego. Just the amount of ego-stroking required! Ugh. It’s too much to ask. Unemployment bennies are important, but I don’t know that I could do it.

  92. 92.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    January 25, 2012 at 11:27 am

    How can a party without any constructive policies for the future possibly look optimistic? Republicans have spent decades avoiding being a party of good government, or any government whatsoever, and so it’s entirely predictable that they would end up as dead-enders, pessimists, nihilists and bomb-throwers. It’s impossible to look hopeful if you don’t even want to believe that there’s anything worth doing.

  93. 93.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 25, 2012 at 11:28 am

    @ geg6: Columbus is larger than Cincy. Columbus also has a significant liberal population due to the university and state government workers.

  94. 94.

    chopper

    January 25, 2012 at 11:31 am

    @EconWatcher:

    you know the guys you have to pick from are crap when you watch daniels’s rebuttal and think ‘this, this is the fuckin’ guy!’

  95. 95.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    January 25, 2012 at 11:32 am

    @rikryah:

    Last night’s State of the Union speech received high marks from viewers across the country, a CBS poll shows. According to the poll, 91 percent of those who viewed the speech approved of the proposals put forth by President Obama, and 82 percent of viewers approved of Obama’s economic plans.

    Gosh, it’s almost as if a privileged Beltway 1%er like Sully doesn’t understand how Real Americans feel about these issues! The peasants like fairness – how unbipartisan of them!

  96. 96.

    DCLaw1

    January 25, 2012 at 11:32 am

    Useless Beltway Pundit Exhibit A takes notice of the speech’s political/popular effects, as designed. Duh.

    Here’s what’s infuriating about the intellectually incestuous pundit class. So many of them hear the SOTU, then see The Masses respond positively to it, but quickly pivot to, “But it doesn’t call for pain and middle class sacrifice! It’s too ambitious! These proposals will never happen, and even if they do, all they do is pander!”

    But you know – you know – that if Obama had instead delivered a starchy, “sober” acquiescence to political gridlock and a call for middle class pain, these same exact pundits would breathlessly chatter about how Obama is just like Carter, delivering a message of negativity and malaise to a people who need optimism, and hey! Could this nice looking Romney guy be the one to provide that??? He does look sorta like Reagan…

    They are worse than useless.

  97. 97.

    Mike in NC

    January 25, 2012 at 11:32 am

    Cantor could use a baseball bat enema.

  98. 98.

    Tone In DC

    January 25, 2012 at 11:33 am

    @kay:

    Good one, Kay.
    A conversation with Cantor would make talking to RomneyBot 3000 look like a semi-enjoyable experience.

  99. 99.

    DCLaw1

    January 25, 2012 at 11:34 am

    OK, dammit, the link in my last comment caught the moderation bot, so here’s a reformatted version:

    Useless Beltway Pundit Exhibit A takes notice of the speech’s political/popular effects, as designed. Duh.

    http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/01/swing-voters-loved-it.html

    Here’s what’s infuriating about the intellectually incestuous pundit class. So many of them hear the SOTU, then see The Masses respond positively to it, but quickly pivot to, “But it doesn’t call for pain and middle class sacrifice! It’s too ambitious! These proposals will never happen, and even if they do, all they do is pander!”

    But you know – you know – that if Obama had instead delivered a starchy, “sober” acquiescence to political gridlock and a call for middle class pain, these same exact pundits would breathlessly chatter about how Obama is just like Carter, delivering a message of negativity and malaise to a people who need optimism, and hey! Could this nice looking Romney guy be the one to provide that??? He does look sorta like Reagan…

    They are worse than useless.

  100. 100.

    DCLaw1

    January 25, 2012 at 11:39 am

    I don’t understand what triggers moderation here.

  101. 101.

    chopper

    January 25, 2012 at 11:40 am

    @DCLaw1:

    i would love if some boner pill was called ‘odera’ or something so every time someone complained about ‘moderation’ it would set off the spam filter as well.

  102. 102.

    Valdivia

    January 25, 2012 at 11:41 am

    @DCLaw1:

    I once wrote about the things we wear in our feet that begins with and s and has an h in the middle and got moderated, so yes, I am still baffled.

  103. 103.

    geg6

    January 25, 2012 at 11:44 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I should know this, considering I don’t live all that far away (Columbus is closer to me than Philly). But I must admit I’ve only driven around it on my way to Cincy or Dayton or Louisville.

    Much as I hate to admit it, my fav OH city is the Mistake on the Lake. It’s got a similar vibe (but, sadly, less hip and prosperous) to Pittsburgh’s. Plus, they have Michael Symon restaurants, which makes it a great city just by dint of that fact.

  104. 104.

    Bulworth

    January 25, 2012 at 11:44 am

    @Southern Beale:

    Nah it’s really the left that’s angry and hates America and Michelle’s an angry black woman and Barry is an angry black man who invites rapper hooligan thugs to the WH and the patriotic teabag Americans are not angry at all, they’re just upset about all the spending, blah blah blah. //

  105. 105.

    geg6

    January 25, 2012 at 11:46 am

    @Valdivia:

    Heh, I’ve had that happen to me, too. The first time it happened, I ran around with my hair on fire, trying to figure out just exactly where I mentioned a boner pill.

    The idea that I can’t ever talk about those things I wear on my feet is very difficult, considering my things-you-wear-on-your-feet fetish.

  106. 106.

    ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®©

    January 25, 2012 at 11:48 am

    @burnspbesq:

    I kinda liked the idea of a joint task force between DOJ and state attorneys general to investigate potential crimes associated with the financial meltdown. This commentariat has been begging for something like this for a couple of years, and now you’ve got it.

    And I’ll believe it when they do something.

    This looks a lot more likely, based on this Administration’s history.
    ~

  107. 107.

    Napoleon

    January 25, 2012 at 11:49 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Not the metro area. Cinci metro is something like 33% bigger then C-bus metro.

  108. 108.

    DCLaw1

    January 25, 2012 at 11:50 am

    One last try…

    Here’s what’s infuriating about the intellectually incestuous pundit class. So many of them hear the SOTU, then see The Masses respond positively to it, but quickly pivot to, “But it doesn’t call for pain and middle class sacrifice! It’s too ambitious! These proposals will never happen, and even if they do, all they do is pander!”

    But you know – you know – that if Obama had instead delivered a starchy, “sober” acquiescence to political gridlock and a call for middle class pain, these same exact pundits would breathlessly chatter about how Obama is just like Carter, delivering a message of negativity and malaise to a people who need optimism, and hey! Could this nice looking Romney guy be the one to provide that??? He does look sorta like Reagan…

    They are worse than useless.

  109. 109.

    Valdivia

    January 25, 2012 at 11:50 am

    @geg6:

    exactly! I kept thinking it must be that if you take the s out of that word it sounds like you are using a word for s–x worker. I still don’t get it. And me too, having a that thing fetish it is hard!

  110. 110.

    Cat Lady

    January 25, 2012 at 11:51 am

    Every day, like today, Obama puts the lie to the teabagging mythology of him as a secret usurping alien who hates America, leaving them to look crazier and crazier, while feeding them more and more crazy rope to hang their crazy selfs with along with their candidates. This morning Bill Gates was shrill and said he doesn’t pay enough taxes, and it isn’t fair. I don’t know if that was coordinated with the WH, but it’s hard to make the case that Bill Gates is putting capitalism on trial also too.

  111. 111.

    Scott P.

    January 25, 2012 at 11:51 am

    Do you remember when one of the big MSM critiques of Democrats was the lack of optimism they showed, how they were always scolding and negative about our future, and how Americans, who are fundamentally optimistic, couldn’t identify with the party and its candidates because of it?

    Are you kidding? I can still hear G.H.W. Bush’s saying “doom and gloom Democrats” in my sleep.

  112. 112.

    Cluttered Mind

    January 25, 2012 at 11:51 am

    It’s not really that surprising. Republicans learned in the aftermath of 9/11 that there was a lot that could be accomplished politically by terrifying the American people. They want as many people in the country to be miserable as possible so that they’ll blame Obama for it.

  113. 113.

    geg6

    January 25, 2012 at 11:54 am

    @Cat Lady:

    it’s hard to make the case that Bill Gates is putting capitalism on trial also too.

    Yes, this. Not to mention having Steve Jobs’ wife hangin’ with FLOTUS all night. Made that reference to him by Daniels in the response even more flatfooted than it was (not to mention a lie).

  114. 114.

    TenguPhule

    January 25, 2012 at 11:55 am

    Feeding the GOP into a mincing machine would definitely put a smile on my face.

  115. 115.

    Benjamin Franklin

    January 25, 2012 at 11:58 am

    Shades of Val Plame and Joe Clark—It’s deja-vu all over again.

    all the elements are present: Iran/Iraq; Patrick Fitzgerald; you name it.

    The Kiriakous; He even testified for waterboarding, but you can’t reveal
    anything to the enemy; The Public.

    http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cia-officer-charged-20120124,0,2883556.story

  116. 116.

    Yevgraf

    January 25, 2012 at 12:03 pm

    @geg6:

    But I must admit I’ve only driven around it on my way to Cincy or Dayton or Louisville.

    As a born and bred Louisvillian, I’m always amazed at how blue we are as opposed to Cincitucky. True, I live in the pulsing red northeast exurbs, but once I cross I-264 into the close-in neighborhoods and small business dominated heart of the city, I’m pleased with the normalcy.

  117. 117.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 25, 2012 at 12:07 pm

    @DCLaw1:

    Three things seem to trigger moderation the most:

    1. A string that contains the brand names of pharmaceuticals that give men erections like they had when they were 19.

    2. Allusions to gaming as in gambling, such as various card and dice games that are commonly played with monetary stakes, and the common names of the types of places where people gather to engage in such activity.

    3. Whatever WordPress feels like tossing into moderation at this particular moment.

  118. 118.

    Rafer Janders

    January 25, 2012 at 12:09 pm

    @geg6:

    Oh, gosh, no, not at all. There’s a lot of liberal, Democratic-minded voters in Columbus. Remember, Columbus has OSU, which has attracted tech and bio-industries to Columbus, and which has also resulted in a large number of younger, more cosmpolitan and left-skewing voters living and moving there.

    Plus, Columbus is in the middle of the state, which gives it much more of a Midwest-skewing orientation. Cincinnatti is just over the border from Kentucky and so trends more Southern/Appalachian.

  119. 119.

    Rafer Janders

    January 25, 2012 at 12:10 pm

    Also, too, Columbus is the state capital, so lots of government employees live and work there.

  120. 120.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 25, 2012 at 12:11 pm

    @Benjamin Franklin:

    As I pointed out in last night’s thread about this, Dick Cheney is still at large for perpetrating this very offense.

    Yet Eric Holder is doing nothing about it.

  121. 121.

    Rafer Janders

    January 25, 2012 at 12:12 pm

    And, finally, Columbus has a large German ethnic base, and they tend to vote Democratic. And it even has a half-way decent gay neighborhood.

  122. 122.

    burnspbesq

    January 25, 2012 at 12:13 pm

    @ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®©:

    “And I’ll believe it when they do something.”

    Investigating is doing something. Is it possible that you don’t get that? Or are you in favor of the Red Queen’s “justice?”

  123. 123.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 25, 2012 at 12:14 pm

    Oh god. I turned on MSNBC and they’ve got Tim Russert’s smarmy son on to parrot GOP talking points as if that makes him a tough, skeptical journamalist.

  124. 124.

    burnspbesq

    January 25, 2012 at 12:19 pm

    @ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®©:

    “This looks a lot more likely, based on this Administration’s history.”

    That article is entirely fact-free.

    Raj Rajaratnam would like a word with you about this Administration’s history, but he’s going to be unavailable for a while.

  125. 125.

    Benjamin Franklin

    January 25, 2012 at 12:20 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    It is ironic that the waterboarders get a pass, but anyone who blows an informational whistle gets their ass thrown in the slammer.

  126. 126.

    AliceBlue

    January 25, 2012 at 12:20 pm

    @Violet:
    There were Jews in the Confederate army, not to mention Judah Benjamin, Secretary of War of the Confederacy.

  127. 127.

    gwangung

    January 25, 2012 at 12:22 pm

    @Benjamin Franklin: Probably because they know the American people wouldn’t vote to convict the torturers.

  128. 128.

    Provider_UNE

    January 25, 2012 at 12:25 pm

    @geg6:

    Playing the pedant on the inernets, Columbus has a population more than double that of Cincinnati. 787,000 to 297,000.
    .

  129. 129.

    Rafer Janders

    January 25, 2012 at 12:31 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    Oh, Christ, this idiocy again? After getting smacked down on it once before, are you back again pretending that Raj Rajaratnam’s prosecution had anything at all to do with the financial crisis?

    Here’s a quarter. Give Raj a call and maybe he can enlighten your ignorant ass.

  130. 130.

    JoJo

    January 25, 2012 at 12:31 pm

    I thought the President made a great speech, and I especially loved the jabs about tax rates and fairness. Cantor’s ‘I smell a fart’ face was icing on the cake.

    However, what the hell was up with all that coughing last night? I’d like to believe that the repubs weren’t that childishly spiteful as to deliberately disrupt the speech, but I know better.

  131. 131.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    January 25, 2012 at 12:34 pm

    I never cease to be amazed by the MSM’s endless passion for masochism for others.

  132. 132.

    Paul in KY

    January 25, 2012 at 12:39 pm

    @geg6: I like Cleveland alot too. Been there 7 or 8 times for browns games. People are polite, view out into lake Erie is beautiful, some fine restaurants too (haven’t eaten at the one you mention).

  133. 133.

    Mike G

    January 25, 2012 at 12:40 pm

    Everything the Repukes say, that isn’t about greed or hate, is a tactic, not a principle. They demand unquestioning obeisance when The Chimp is in office, then call Obama a traitor. They impeached Clinton for having a girlfriend, then claim absolute immunity for everything under Bush, then threaten impeachment over trivia again when Obama takes office.

    They have absolutely no shame or self-awareness of the hypocrisy of this, because everything is a tactic for short-term advantage, and anything is justified in their pursuit of power because they are ‘good’ and everyone else is ‘evil’. They lie to prove they can get away with it.

    Everything is dedicated to grabbing power so they looting and distribution of spoils can begin; there is no coherent interest in actual governing.

  134. 134.

    Mnemosyne

    January 25, 2012 at 12:41 pm

    @EconWatcher:

    Given that the state AGs have been investigating those crimes for a while, it sounded more to me that they were setting up a board to coordinate the ongoing state investigations, not starting brand-new investigations. YMMV, of course.

  135. 135.

    Paul in KY

    January 25, 2012 at 12:42 pm

    @Napoleon: Yup, Covington/Newport are good sized burgs. Plus alot of bedroom communities (Ft. Thomas, Beechwood, Ludlow, etc.).

  136. 136.

    Mnemosyne

    January 25, 2012 at 12:43 pm

    @Benjamin Franklin:

    Bragging to journalists about how awesome waterboarding is and how it totally worked now counts as “blowing the whistle”?

    I guess that when Ted Bundy confessed to murdering women, he was really blowing the whistle on serial murderers.

  137. 137.

    Elie

    January 25, 2012 at 12:45 pm

    @EconWatcher:

    The same Mitch Daniels who was Budget Director for Dubya and helped put us in the mess we are in…

    Pleez oh pleez… can you see the campaign ads that Obama would run?

    Mitch was smart enough to know that would not work — which is why he is “being with his family” instead of running for President..

  138. 138.

    Paul in KY

    January 25, 2012 at 12:47 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: But you can say baccarat all day & no moderation!

    Baccarat! Let’s play baccarat!

    It’s another example of the seperate rules for the ‘Investor Class’. Their fucking games don’t get moderated.

  139. 139.

    trollhattan

    January 25, 2012 at 12:54 pm

    Test-driving miss Daniels. I hope the Republican machers thing they have a star on their hands, since he avoided referencing volcano research during his happy chat. The invaluable Andy Borowitz:

    “Shorter Mitch Daniels: ‘I want to take you all to a city on the hill and there I will kill and eat you.'”

    Boy oh boy, would he ever make a great veep pick. I’d love to see him with a thousand pounds of Bush-era fiscal policy hung around his pencil neck.

  140. 140.

    trollhattan

    January 25, 2012 at 12:55 pm

    @trollhattan:

    “thing/think” I’d edit that if I were me.

  141. 141.

    passerby

    January 25, 2012 at 1:02 pm

    I think starting last year, the seating arrangements for the SOTU were changed to mix both parties side by side vs. being separated by The Aisle. Done in part to stifle cliques of trouble makers that might shout out “You lie!” or something like that.

    Since then, there has been less vigorous, damped down partisan responses to SOTU content. Divide and conquer.

    Also, my favorite moment was when Obama made the joke about the struggles of dairy farmers to comply with industry demands of treating milk as an oil product. Paraphrasing:

    “…this gives new meaning to the phrase ‘crying over spilt milk’…”

    Obama paused and kinda laughed at his own joke and the camera shot went to some republicans who did not react at all. Just dour and unamused men. I laughed out loud.

  142. 142.

    Brachiator

    January 25, 2012 at 1:12 pm

    @kay: RE: But will you grant me the shifty-eyed lying weasel?

    I will, but he’s a vain and childish shifty-eyed lying weasel, and that takes all of the threat out of it for me. I can’t believe he’s in the US House. He’s 9 years old.

    There’s a website dedicated to Cantor’s constipated expressions.

  143. 143.

    Elie

    January 25, 2012 at 1:18 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Boy oh boy, would he ever make a great veep pick. I’d love to see him with a thousand pounds of Bush-era fiscal policy hung around his pencil neck.

    Not gonna happen… :-)

  144. 144.

    trollhattan

    January 25, 2012 at 1:28 pm

    Whoa, Mittens’ financial shenanigans get worse and worse. $100M in gifts to the Patriot Boys(tm) without a nickle of gift taxes paid.

    http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/01/mitt-romneys-kids-pay-even-lower-tax-rate-he-does

  145. 145.

    liberal

    January 25, 2012 at 1:35 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    Given that the state AGs have been investigating those crimes for a while…

    Would that it were so.

  146. 146.

    geg6

    January 25, 2012 at 1:40 pm

    @Mike G:

    Oh, next time you are there, go as fast as you can to Lola (warning though: it’s pricey, as you would expect of an Iron Chef). He also has a less pricey place that features hamburgers, I believe.

  147. 147.

    lacp

    January 25, 2012 at 1:41 pm

    @liberal: Some of them have been. IIRC, Nevada’s AG has been pretty aggressive; of course, she’s got a lot to work with out there.

  148. 148.

    Johnny Gentle (famous crooner)

    January 25, 2012 at 1:43 pm

    You don’t dare project optimism when you’ve spent the last 3 years shrieking about the utter destruction of American society at the hands of the socialist Muslim and his gay-marrying pals. Republicans’ raison d’etre has always been fear, suspicion and hatred, so why should the nominating contest be any different?

  149. 149.

    Benjamin Franklin

    January 25, 2012 at 1:46 pm

    @trollhattan:

    It sounds like a generation-skipping trust.

  150. 150.

    Brachiator

    January 25, 2012 at 1:49 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Whoa, Mittens’ financial shenanigans get worse and worse. $100M in gifts to the Patriot Boys™ without a nickle of gift taxes paid.

    Not quite true. Mitt has set up a number of trusts in which the income accumulates. No gift tax is due.

    David Cay Johnston has written a lot of good and accurate stuff about the tax system. I suspect that the Mother Jones’ reporter has oversimplified what Johnston probably laid out more carefully. For example, this line from the story is a stupid oversimplification:

    The Romney kids will have to pay taxes when they start taking income from the trust their father set up for them — at the usual 15% rate paid by millionaires, of course…

  151. 151.

    burnspbesq

    January 25, 2012 at 1:51 pm

    @Rafer Janders:

    SIUTA. your view on this issue is entirely without merit, and doesn’t improve with either repetition or increased volume.

  152. 152.

    Elie

    January 25, 2012 at 1:52 pm

    @geg6:

    And the best damned milkshakes on this planet… try the chocolate bacon milk shake (yes, oh yes)… Awesome place — all the burgers, etc are good, but the shakes were my fave…

  153. 153.

    Cris (without an H)

    January 25, 2012 at 1:54 pm

    Wow, I didn’t realize that John Aravosis’s blog comments were so packed with firebaggers. It’s like Kola Noscopy ghost-wrote the whole thread.

  154. 154.

    Mnemosyne

    January 25, 2012 at 1:56 pm

    @liberal:

    Dude. I realize you have no idea who Eric Schneiderman is and what he’s been doing as the AG of New York state, but try not to embarrass yourself.

  155. 155.

    Mnemosyne

    January 25, 2012 at 2:00 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    Another Schneiderman link.

    Clearly, Obama appointing the guy who refused to settle with the banks for pennies on the dollar and insisted on continuing his fraud investigations of them is a huge defeat for progressives, because it’s Obama, amirite?

  156. 156.

    Svensker

    January 25, 2012 at 2:04 pm

    @Morbo:

    Apparently last night was the first time Chad Ochocinco watched the SOTU.

    Is that really him? He’s actually pretty funny.

  157. 157.

    Benjamin Franklin

    January 25, 2012 at 2:04 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    Clearly, Obama appointing the guy who refused to settle with the banks for pennies on the dollar and insisted on continuing his fraud investigations of them is a huge defeat for progressives, because it’s Obama, amirite?

    What is your point, because it seems contradictory?

  158. 158.

    Brachiator

    January 25, 2012 at 2:07 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    Clearly, Obama appointing the guy who refused to settle with the banks for pennies on the dollar and insisted on continuing his fraud investigations of them is a huge defeat for progressives, because it’s Obama, amirite?

    keep in mind that there is a small crowd of perpetually unhappy progressives who believe that Obama failed the moment he refused to nationalize all banks and have all bankers removed to Gitmo. And the proof that he is being controlled by bankers is the fact that he appointed Geithner to head Treasury.

    So, as always, Obama is both controlled by bankers and also gets his marching orders from the last Soviet cell in Moscow. You gotta wonder how he has time to get anything done at all.

  159. 159.

    Mnemosyne

    January 25, 2012 at 2:13 pm

    @Benjamin Franklin:

    It only seems contradictory if you’re one of the people who believes that Obama is controlled by the big banks and would never dare to do anything that would upset them despite, you know, all of the other actions he’s taken that have upset them. If you discount everything he’s done previously, then I guess this would look a little out of place.

    If, on the other hand, you actually take his previous actions into account, then I can’t see any contradiction at all.

  160. 160.

    Mnemosyne

    January 25, 2012 at 2:16 pm

    @Brachiator:

    “All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?”

  161. 161.

    Benjamin Franklin

    January 25, 2012 at 2:17 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    It does seem Obama is tolerating Schneidermans’ contrary positions(most recently he disagreed with Obama on ‘fracking) so he deserves credit for that.

  162. 162.

    kansi

    January 25, 2012 at 2:25 pm

    As long as we are discussing ugly mugs, I shrieked when I saw Mean Jean Schmidt thrust a paper at the President for his autograph after the SOTU. Talk about wasted space….

  163. 163.

    Brachiator

    January 25, 2012 at 2:48 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    “All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?”

    Bread and circuses?

  164. 164.

    satby

    January 25, 2012 at 3:00 pm

    @kansi: How about that, huh? I was gobsmacked; isn’t she a tea-bagger too?

  165. 165.

    El Kabong

    January 25, 2012 at 3:01 pm

    Cantor reminds me of the lead alpha-dog from the movie UP!, whose malfunctioning voice collar makes his voice so childish that the other dogs can’t take him seriously. Cantor looks like he’s seething because his face is not instilling the fear it deserves.

  166. 166.

    FlipYrWhig

    January 25, 2012 at 3:16 pm

    @Mnemosyne: One of the Boomsn front-pagers was saying in comments there that he feared it was an attempt to co-opt Schneiderman, and cited another leftier-than-thou blogosphere denizen for support. Sigh.

  167. 167.

    DanielX

    January 25, 2012 at 3:17 pm

    @dmsilev:

    Erick Son of Erick haz a sad.

    So maybe we ought to all find someone who we all kind of like instead of heading to Tampa in August all licking wounds and pretending to rally to the man the voters chose between the evils of two real lessers.

    Little late for that, Erick. It was too late when your party slated the crew of vultures and certifiable lunatics that comprised and still comprise the Republican field. You’re nervous because you feel that whoever the nominee is will probably turn out to be unelectable. You’re almost certainly correct, and you among others created the environment in which only vultures and crazies are acceptable to Republican primary voters. Keep up the good work…please.

  168. 168.

    FlipYrWhig

    January 25, 2012 at 3:29 pm

    @FlipYrWhig: Um, “Booman,” obviously, not “Boomsn.”

  169. 169.

    Citizen_X

    January 25, 2012 at 3:39 pm

    Hating the gays,the browns, and the poors, and cutting programs to keep taxes down are all unpleasant work, and it shows.

    You forgot The Eternal War, Everywhere, Forever and Ever, Amen for which we were supposed to gird ourselves.

  170. 170.

    Rafer Janders

    January 25, 2012 at 3:55 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    Oooh, good comeback!

    But once again, because you don’t seem capable of understanding this:

    You claimed that the prosecution of Rajaratnam for insider trading was a sign that the Obama administration got tough on the insiders who caused the financial crisis. This claim is nonsense, for several reasons:

    1. Raj Rajartnam was the head of a small to medium-sized hedge fund who misappropriated material non-public information to make equity trades on public companies, in clear and blatant violation of existing federal securities legislation prohibiting insider trading and securities fraud. He made only about $60mm on these trades, chump change. It was basic straight up theft, of no particular comoplexity, the kind of insider trading that’s been prosecuted under every administration since we’ve had these laws. Rajaratnam’s actions did not cause, and had nothing to do with, the financial crisis.

    2. The financial crisis had many causes, but, to simplify it drastically, it was a banking system crisis caused by mistaken valuation and liquidity levels, amplified and magnified by insane levels of leverage and by an ill-understood interlocking of counterparty credit risk throughout the web of US and European banks, and by poorly designed financial instruments such as swaps that were designed to lessen risk but actually increased it. The crisis was set off, but not entirely caused by, the mortgage crisis in the US, and then spread out from there. It was not caused by a one-off, non-leveraged, small insider equity trade on public companies.

    3. Therefore, the prosecution of Rajaratnam for using insider information to get a petty $60mm advantage for his small fund on some equity trades had nothing, nothing at all to do with this equity crisis. It’s like claiming that the prosecution of Bernie Madoff was a sign that Obama got tough on Wall Street. Or, actually, like claiming that the fact that the police caught a burglar is a sign that they cracked down on the Mafia.

    4. Finally, the banks at the center of the financial crisis were actually Rajaratnams’s victims. Raj stole information that was proprietary and confidential to Goldman and several other banks, and used it to make money at their expense. Again, you’re claiming that prosecuting someone who stole money from the banks is a sign that Obama got tough with the banks, which makes. No. sense.

    Or, in even simpler terms: You. Are. An. Idiot.

  171. 171.

    Ruckus

    January 25, 2012 at 4:12 pm

    @kay:
    He’s 9 years old.

    They are all 9 years old. OK some of them are 7.

  172. 172.

    Rafer Janders

    January 25, 2012 at 4:51 pm

    Among many typos, (3) in my 171 post above should read “nothing at all to do with this debt crisis”, not “equity crisis”. Damn the lack of an edit button!

  173. 173.

    Tony J

    January 25, 2012 at 5:25 pm

    @MattM:

    Somebody’s a Warren Ellis fan.

    Aren’t we all? We damn well should be. He even looks like Cole, but more Scottish and beady eyed. And bald.

  174. 174.

    Crza

    January 25, 2012 at 10:39 pm

    @dmsilev: I work for the state of Indiana. Every time I visit one of our websites or read one of our newsletters, Daniels’ “smiling” mug is prominently displayed. And every time all I can think is “can’t they reprogram his mouth-muscle actuators to lift upwards at the edges just a little more?”

    Seriously, do an image search on him and see if he ever bares a smile that shows… I dunno, teeth. (Spoiler alert: he never does.)

  175. 175.

    sharl

    January 25, 2012 at 10:42 pm

    I’ve seen that face in the OP somewhere… somewhere…
    Ah, here!

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